1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for the generation of synthetic images, especially for the generation of image sequences.
The field of the invention is that of image synthesis by computer, namely the synthesis of monocular images for display on conventional screens and binocular or stereoscopic images for display in relief in virtual image type applications.
The aim of such methods is to reduce the cost of computation of the image sequences generated.
2. Discussion of the Background
In the known approaches, the volume of computations required is reduced by a limiting, done homogeneously in the temporal and spatial domains, of the information elements processed by a rendition algorithm that enables the preparing of a 2D image on the basis of structural data modelling the 3D scene to be displayed. The diminishing of computation costs then occurs inevitably to the detriment of the realism of the sequence thus generated.
The next step in the reduction of computation costs, which is also a known one, is a temporal interpolation that recreates intermediate images from key images, which are the only images computed on the basis of the rendition algorithm. The generation of such images is generally based on the use of velocity vectors computed from one image to the next one by means of these images and is therefore based on an estimate of the displacement of the pixels of the image.
In all these cases of interpolation, whether they are simple repetitions of images or entail methods of greater complexity such as space/time filtering operations, there are jerking and echo effects. These effects arise out of the fact that neither the individual motion of objects in the scene nor the motion of the observation point is taken into account. The temporal interpolation generates "estimated" images which are therefore not always of good quality.